


Speaking Volumes

by invoked_duplicity



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Aelwyn is bad at talking about her feelings, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Sister-Sister Relationship, in which i made up a bunch of books that don't actually exist, the abernant sisters deserve nice things, there is brief hinting of some Gorgug/Ragh/Zelda in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29665140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invoked_duplicity/pseuds/invoked_duplicity
Summary: Adaine keeps finding books among her things.
Relationships: Adaine Abernant & Aelwyn Abernant
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47
Collections: Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021





	Speaking Volumes

### I.

Adaine finds the first book two weeks after Aelwyn moves into her room. At first she is confused because Adaine knows her books and the one she finds lying on top of her pillow has a blue cover with silver rimming that she’s never seen before. As she steps closer and takes it into her hand she wonders if Aelwyn forgot it here. 

The title reads “Divinatory Practices Across The World”. 

It certainly doesn’t seem like a book Aelwyn would be interested in so Adaine sits down on her bed, opens the book and flips through the pages. She finds it interesting to read about divination magic in other nations, especially because she insists on being the oracle to all people. 

When Aelwyn comes back she finds Adaine still reading on her bed. 

“Is this yours?”, Adaine asks as Aelwyn takes off her jacket and kicks her shoes into the corner behind the door. Aelwyn’s eyes dart over to her. 

“No”, she says before she starts rummaging through her closet. 

Adaine considers asking more questions, but the book is too interesting to stop reading. She files her questions away for later and opens the book again.

### II. 

The second book is tucked into her schoolbag one morning as she’s about to stuff an apple between the heavy books. Adaine immediately recognizes that it’s not one of the books she needs for school and furrows her brows as she carefully takes it out to look at it. 

It’s a beautiful leatherbound book with an intricately design cover that shows a lush, green forest with fairies dancing around a campfire. The title is printed in golden letters. 

“Rebel Fairies – A Modern Retelling Of Elven Fairy Tales”

While Adaine would never say that her mother was good at parenting she took some time to tell her daughters various elven fairy tales from the “homeland” and Adaine remembers vividly how little she liked most of them. 

“Morning, Adaine”, Jawbone says as he enters the kitchen in his cardigan, holding a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a book about Polyamory for beginners in the other hand. For a split second Adaine wonders why Jawbone would need that, since he doesn’t strike her as much of a beginner, but then thinks that maybe the book is for Sandralynn. 

“Good morning”, she answers and holds up the book. “Do you know who put this in my bag?”

“Huh? No. I’ve never seen that before”, Jawbone says sits down at the kitchen table. Adaine hesitates for a second, then she stuffs the book back into her bag and grabs her apple. 

“Have a good day at school, kiddo”, Jawbone calls after her.

### III.

Adaine finds out why Jawbone had a book about Polyamory for beginners the same day she finds the third book in her closet. This one is quite thin, bound in white and with a caged dove on the cover. 

It seems to be a collection of poems titled “From The Ashes” by an author she’s never heard of before. While flipping through the pages she finds the dedication in the front. 

“For all the children who grew up unloved”

Adaine stuffs the book back into the closet and slams the door shut, her eyes stinging. 

When she walks down the stairs she meets Ragh in front of his room, looking sheepish and with a familiar book under his arm while he’s talking to Gorgug. 

“Adaine! You ok? You look a little pale, dude”, Ragh says and clasps his giant hand on Adaine’s back which makes her cough a little. Gorgug looks a little like a deer in headlights as he scratches the back of his neck. 

“I’m fine”, Adaine says and looks from Gorgug to Ragh and back again. “Do any of you happen to know who’s giving me books?”

“I’m not really allowed to read”, Gorgug says. 

“That’s not true. Ayda just says you shouldn’t read about magic, bro”, Ragh says fondly and Adaine looks pointedly down at the book under his arm that spells Polyamory for beginners in big, red letters. 

“So, none of you know anything?”, she asks again. Gorgug’s face turns darkgreen when he notices that Adaine has seen the book. 

“I didn’t put books anywhere”, Ragh says and holds up his hand in a promising gesture. 

Adaine sighs. 

“Ok. I’m happy for you guys, by the way”, she says as she turns around to walk further downstairs. 

Later that evening, while Aelwyn is taking a shower, Adaine opens the closet again and grabs the little book of poems, hides it under her pillow and reads it all on one night under her blanket with a little globule of light floating above the pages.

### IV. 

Usually Adaine has a very particular filing system for her books. 

She makes an exception for the books she keeps finding all over the place, all curated perfectly to her tastes—sometimes without her knowing about it before she opens them. 

Adaine makes room for the mysteriously appearing books on the top of one of her shelves and puts them all there in their order of appearence. After the first three, she found one made up completely of pictures of various colorful frogs, a graphic novel about a librarian with a secret identity who goes out to punch villains at night, a translation of a diary kept by one of the former elven oracles, a children’s book explaining trauma and a science fiction novel about the ragtag crew of a spaceship building a found family on their travels. 

She reads all of them with care and marks the parts and pages that she likes the most with colorful post-its. It feels like the whole house has entered this book-conspiracy against her. 

“Hey Adaine, I found this on your part of the shelf in the bathroom.”

“Oh, by the way, kiddo, this was in the mail for you today.”

“Dude, there was another one on your favorite armchair.”

Suspiciously, none of them ask questions about these books. Which leads Adaine to believe that they’re all in on it. 

When Aelwyn walks in one Sunday morning to find Adaine standing in front of her shelf, looking at all her newly collected books with a smile she crosses her arms in front of her chest and looks at Adaine thoughtfully. 

“Read anything interesting lately?”, she asks.

### V.

“So. When are you going to admit that you’re the one sneaking all these books into my stuff?”

Aelwyn looks up. She’s painting her nails black with great care. 

“What are you talking about?”, she asks with a raise of her left eyebrow. Adaine crosses her arms over her chest. 

“No one knows me this well, you know? There’s really no one else who could have picked all of these”, Adaine says and watches Aelwyn carefully. 

She’s still very guarded and too good at masking her feelings. It has gotten better during the last months but Aelwyn remains behind her walls most of the time. 

At Adaine’s words, there is a flicker of something on her sister’s face and she puts the nail polish down. 

“Are you accusing me of being secretly nice to you? Why ever would I hide doing nice things for you, Adaine?”

Adaine sighs. 

“Because you have a hard time dealing with feelings. Maybe you were afraid I was going to hug you. Or say something mushy”, Adaine says with a good amount of sarcasm, a language she knows Aelwyn is comfortable with. 

Aelwyn snorts and raises her freshly painted nails to blow on them. 

“Fine. I gave you some books. So what?”

Adaine smiles and pulls her knees up to her chest to hug them. 

“You have surprisingly good taste in books for someone who’s so pretentious most of the time”, Adaine says. She knows that this is the kind of talk that Aelwyn can accept easily. 

“Oh, well, I am ever so thankful for your approval, Adaine. Maybe next time I’ll give you something really pretentious to read, see if you’re able to grasp it.”

Adaine snorts and shakes her head but she can’t help but smile. Maybe she should give Aelwyn a book back. Maybe she could show Aelwyn the passages she marked. Maybe this can be a language for them, for now, when everything else is too difficult still. 

“I’m looking forward to it.”


End file.
